Luke Padfield

Most  of my life has been lived in Edinburgh. In 1995, I moved to Glasgow  where I attended the School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of  Art.

After  three years, I left Glasgow and returned to Edinburgh where I became a  self-employed door to door salesman. This job took me to London where I  spent two years in field sales. I returned to Edinburgh in 2000 to  finish basic training in running a charity donor recruitment business  and by 2001 I had established a small limited company. I took this  business back to Glasgow where it ran for three years.

In  2004, I made the decision to return to University, this time to study  Law. Given my age at the time, my qualifications were said to be ‘out of  date’ so it was necessary to complete an access course. I was accepted  on the LLB programme at the University of Edinburgh, beginning in  September 2005. To support my studies, I worked as a part-time  researcher at the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland.  In 2007 I took part in the ERASMUS exchange programme and spent a year  in France. I completed the LLB in 2009, writing a final dissertation on  the law of Treason. The following year, I was accepted to study for an  LLM in the theories and philosophies of Legal Research. My Masters  dissertation was focused on the possibility of developing a ‘community  right to a healthy environment’.

I  left the University of Edinburgh in 2011 having graduated from the LLM  programme. Since then, I have worked alongside, UN House Scotland, the  Equalities and Rights Network and as a Parliamentary Researcher. As part  of my work with UNHS, I spent some time on the fundraising team. When  the organiser of Secure Scotland began talking about the project, I  suggested applying to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

For me, the primary benefit of the Secure Scotland project, is to the maturation process of all those engaged with it.